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nothing has really changed, except the endler population going up exponentially.
the tank is only so-so right now.
im having problems with my kh being very high, so when i do a water change, it swings a lot (due to my AS) and then my CO2 swings. so im doing only tiny water changes and top offs, and as a result stopped dosing except once a week for each solution to prevent overdoing it.
my CO2 ran out recently without CO2 my ph is at 8.0...
going back to college in a little over a week, so im not gonna bother with the tank til after the move.
and i may not keep it up. if the gh in RU is still as high as it was at the end of last year, i will not be able to use it for water changes, ill need RODI water. and if im gonna use RO, i may as well have a reef. which is what i decided. if the gh or kh are too high in burnswick, the tank will be converted into a SPS-heavy reef (and my bank account will cry).
my 2 ADA30Cs are staying planted for sure though.

08-18-2013 10:58 PM

Bserve

Yo Marko, any updates?

07-06-2013 10:32 PM

@marko@

finally my aquarium is almost back to its full glory. everything is growing nicely, and colorful. the p. helferi is making an especially nice comeback.of course, im going away for 2 weeks soon... but i doubt there will be much damage from that. ill just decrease the photoperiod to limit the need for nutrients so that it can make do without me dosing.
note - the photos are a bit hazy looking, cuz my CO2 is misting. thats why everything seems a bit greyer than in real life.

FTS:

ludwigia sp red:

hygrohpila sp aragua:

didiplis diandra:

pogostemon helferi:

rotala sp butterfly:

poecilia wingei tiger male:

poecilia wingei tiger pair:

poecilia wingei tiger fry:

snail running rampant:

neocaridina david 'orange':

05-31-2013 02:15 AM

@marko@

here is the tank clearly recovering:

05-20-2013 01:54 AM

@marko@

after the move and some new plants, im hoping to get this tank back on track.

FTS:

l. red:

h. palustris:

unfortunately, the CPDs fared surprisingly poorly with the move, i lost 3 so far... but i did loose one right before, so they may be ill and the move further weakened them. i wont add any fish til i dont have any losses for at least a month, to make sure i dont just keep an infection going.

05-08-2013 08:57 PM

@marko@

now its clear that at least the hygro is definitely improving:

05-05-2013 04:56 AM

@marko@

a shrimp still lives! most of the amanos and 1 of the orange neos kicked it over the past 2 weeks. the water is crap. but now its improving since ive been doing ro wcs (i hope). here is a pic of the lil guy:

here is the h. brown on 4/28, see how crappy it looks (and this is a very hardy plant):

and now it looks a bit better:

04-17-2013 05:11 AM

@marko@

its a female, but she isnt berried (in person you could see the undercarriage was not full of eggs). it does look that way in the photo, but its a phone camera shot. they were bought on sunday, 2 of them were saddled, none were berried.

04-17-2013 01:48 AM

fishboy199413

Wow that is a berried shrimp! The tank looks great. How many cpds do you have and have they bred for you?

04-17-2013 01:38 AM

@marko@

no, thats not an issue. the CPDs keep some room between themselves and the big fish. lol
he just has anorexia.

since i was having an issue with CO2 as well as Mg, i of course developed a good amount of algae in this tank. but hopefully now it will start to get under control, as ive had good CO2 for 2 days, and i THINK the l. red is perking up. new growth has been smaller and green, but one of the growth tips turned from green to a brownish color with red veins - closer to its healthier shade. if the rest of the stems color back up ill take it as a sign that ive fixed my CO2 problem, at least partially. it may be another week til i can tell if new growth on my plants is healthy or not.

also, i bought 6 orange shrimp and put them in the tank. they are neocards, so im hoping they are able to breed for me in here.

04-12-2013 07:25 PM

vvDO

I always had trouble getting the food to them rather than them being picky eaters. They do prefer live or frozen over freeze dried. Main problem is other fish taking their food. I actually used a syringe sucked up a worm and dropped it right in front of them otherwise my neons would get to them.

04-11-2013 04:02 PM

@marko@

so im having some issues with the plants. the e. parkeri, e. hydropiper, and b. japonica have melted a bit. some of each is still alive though. i think its cuz i was using too much peroxide and glutaraldehyde to try and get rid of the remaining algae. ironically, this significant loss of plant mass (from the japonica) will likely cause the algae to start coming back for a while...

also im thinking about getting a d. dario (scarlet badis) or pair for this tank. anybody have any thoughts? the water is good, its just a question of the ram and CPDs being an issue or not. the ram leaves the danios alone, and is a very finicky eater, so he wont be a problem. and i understand boraras are suitable tankmates, and CPDs are very similar.

04-08-2013 02:55 AM

Mumford

Marko's College 20 Gal Long: 4/7/13

Looking like its recovering!!

- Mumford

04-08-2013 01:24 AM

@marko@

so did a bit of a change. added h. brown in front of the r. m. green, put l. red where the c. furcata was (have a few stems left to grow back out), and got my hands on some e. hydropiper for a pre-foreground.

03-26-2013 01:30 PM

Mumford

Marko's College 20 Gal Long: post spring break 3/25/13

Man what a bummer

Are you going to rescape at all or just work with what you have?

- Mumford

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